My Haven JEAN-MICHEL JARRE

The performer and pioneer of electronic music, 70, in his apartment in central Paris

1 WILD NIGHT

This flat, in which I’ve lived since 2003, was once home to Marlene Dietrich and also the artist Henri Matisse, and I love that the place has artistic vibes about it. This megaphone is a reminder of my concert in London’s Docklands 30 years ago. It was a nightmare with the wind and the rain, and then my friend Princess Diana decided to come and we had to build a royal box. I lost my voice too and had to use the megaphone to communicate. That night was proof, if needed, of how unique British audiences are – even in the mud, rain and a freezing wind they came and were amazing. It was all quite Wagnerian, but really unbelievable.

2 COMMUNION MANIFESTO

I was the first Western musician to play in China in the early 1980s, after Mao’s time, and I went back in 2004 to play in the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. I had the idea then to have Chinese musicians on stage and involve Chinese artists to work on the visuals for the show. One of the artists who helped make the middle of the Forbidden City look like a sci-fi city was Zhang Xiaogang. To thank me he gave me this painting.

3 PARIS OR BUST

Charlotte Rampling, the mother of my children and a very dear person (pictured below, before her marriage to Jarre), gave me this bust of Beethoven by the sculptor Jean Perzel. It was one of five the Germans had him make, and was stolen by the Resistance. My mother Francette was in the Resistance. She broke out of Ravensbruck concentration camp and made it back to Paris lying flat on the roof of a train.

4 A GRAND TIME

My parents split up when I was five and the father figure in my life as a child was my grandfather. He was an engineer, an inventor, and also a musician who played the oboe. He created one of the first mixing desks for radio, and also this portable turntable with batteries built in, and speakers on the cover. It was like the grandfather of the iPod. When I was a child we’d go for picnics and take this turntable with us to listen to old Edith Piaf or jazz records.

5 MAN OF THE HOUR

I was very influenced by Stephen Hawking and even dedicated an album to him called Chronology. He was very funny – when I asked him what is the most mysterious thing in the universe, he said ‘women’. He gave me this Omega Speedmaster, which is the same type of watch as the astronauts took to the moon.

6 MAMMA, AND ALL THAT JAZZ

I love this picture with my mother, which was taken in Lyon, where we lived. She listened to lots of jazz and when she was in the Resistance she met Madame Ricard, who later opened the most influential jazz club in Paris called Le Chat Qui Peche. The radio here was hers. We’d visit her and as a kid I listened to people like Chet Baker and John Coltrane. For my eighth birthday Chet sat me on the piano and played his trumpet for me.